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FREMONT, THE CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATE. 



CORRESPONDENCE 



HON. HAMILTON FISH, 

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U. S. SENATOR FROM NEW YORK, 

AND 

HON. JAMES A. HAMILTON, 

SON OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 



LETTER OF HON. HAMILTON FISH. 



Newport, September 12, 1856. 
James A. Hamilton, Esq., Nevis, Dobbs' Ferry, N. Y. : 

My Dear Sir : — Your letter of the 30th ult. was sent to Wash- 
ington, some days after I had left there, and was returned to New 
York, and followed me thence to this place. It was not received 
until many days after its date. You desire an expression of my 
views on the present condition of political affairs. 

I have felt much embarrassment in determining the course which 
duty requires in the present political contest. 

I am a Whig. I desire no additional epithet; neither National, 
nor Union, nor Conservative, nor Free Soil. The term Whig im- 
plies nationality, and devotion to the Union, and to the great princi- 
ples of human liberty and of conservative stability. Whig principles 
are enduring, not dependent upon temporary issues or questions of 
political policy ; but they are the principles of law and order, of the 
rights of person and property, of personal liberty and of social re 
straint, without which our republican institutions must cease to exist. 
I am reluctant to abandon a name which embodies such principles, 



and which is endeared by the recollection of so many trvin^ con- 
flicts, through which it has been borne by illustrious statesmen whose 
names are embalmed in the history of the country. 

But our old, honored Whig party is temporarily disorganized, and 
presents no distinctive candidates for our support. We must either 
abstain from voting, or make selection from among the candidates 
presented by other organizations, to neither of which may we be able 
to yield entire, cordial concurrence. To abstain from voting, or, 
(what is equivalent) to vote for persons not generally recognized as 
candidates, is an abandonment of a high duty. The elective fran- 
chise, which many are apt to consider only the privilege of the 
citizen, is a trust, from the considerate discharge of which he cannot 
relieve himself without a violation of duty to his principles and his 
country. 

It rarely happens that an individual citizen finds in the persons 
presented, even by the party to which he belongs, precisely the can- 
didates whom he would have preferred ; at best, he has to yield 
something of his individual preferences to the wishes and preferences 
of others, and he who refuses to cooperate with any political party, 
because he does not find in any creed all the principles he approves, 
or because he cannot approve all that it avows, or because he mis- 
trusts some of the men belonging to the party, and even some who 
seem to enjoy its confidence, is awaiting the realization of a political 
Utopia, whose attainment will not be reached within his days of use- 
fulness. In the best aspect of the present contest, Whigs have to 
yield very much of their preferences. Thus, we find those who have 
been Whigs ranging themselves, if not permanently, at least for the 
coming contest, with either the Democratic, the American, or the 
Republican parties. Between these we have to make choice. The 
two former present for the principal office, candidates of tried expe- 
rience and statesmanship. The third presents a candidate of less 
experience, but not untried or unknown. I am free to concede to 
each, patriotism, purity, and intelligence. 

For more than the third of a century, Mr. Buchanan has occupied 
a space in the political history of the country ; his political sympa- 
thies varying with the current of popular opinion. At one time a 
warm Federalist, and then a zealous Democrat — friend, and then 
opponent, of a National Bank — a supporter of the high protective 
policy in Penns/h ania, and a member of the Free Trade Cabinet, 



L + 35 



which aimed to overthrow that policy — an approver of the Missouri 
Compromise line, and the advocate of its extension, and now approv- 
ing its obliteration — first disapproving, and then applauding, the 
abrogation of the limitation of slavery extension. 

But (as Mr. Buchanan is reported to have said,) it is not he, but 
"a platform," which the Democratic party presents; and that the 
Cincinnati jlatform — a platform which assigns to the Constitution 
of the United States no higher duty than that of carrying Slavery 
wherever its jurisdiction extends, and which announces a foreign pol- 
icy worthy of the Ishmaelite whose hand is against every man, and 
which can be practised only by a nation of pirates and of bandits. 
The civilized world was startled by the principles promulgated at 
Ostend, but those principles were adopted, in all their atrocity, at 
Cincinnati, and the Democratic party seeks to invest them with Ex- 
ecutive power, and the aid of conservative Whigs is asked, in behalf 
of the chief author of those terrible heresies. 

How they who value the public peace, who believe in the reality 
of national integrity, or who regard good faith as anything better 
than a mask behind which aggression and violence may conceal their 
designs, can support the foreign policy embodied in the Cincinnati 
platform, or can aid in giving practical efficiency to that policy, is a 
mystery only to be accounted for by the subtle but paramount influ- 
ence of the concessions made in the other portions of the Democratic 
platform to the sectional interest, which in a part of the country has 
overridden all political distinctions of Whig and Democrat, and has 
converted what once was the National Democratic party into a mere 
sectional Southern ^arty. 

A party is not national merely because interest or ambition may 
lead some in the proscribed portion of the country to its support. 
Neither is it sectional because fear or prejudice may deter any or all 
in one section from its advocacy. 

More than a year ago, a distinguished Southern gentleman who 
had earned the position which he graces in the Senate of the United 
States by ability and devotion to the Whig party, surpassed only by 
the zeal which he now gives to the support of Buchanan and the 
Democratic cause, in a carefully prepared letter to some of his con- 
stituents, after predicting" the fast-approaching time when, not only 
Louisiana, but the entire South " should be " animated by a single 
8] ii-it," justly characterized the party with which he now acts, by 



saying, that " When that day shall come * * * I shall not, 
I trust, be found the last of those who will battle in behalf of the 
great Southern party ." 

The author of this letter is too intelligent to be deceived in the 
character or the designs of the party to which he has transferred his 
services. It is called " Democratic," but it is " the great Southern 
parti/." 

Not only individuals, but the press at the South urge the Demo- 
cratic party as the " party of the South" and present Mr. Bu- 
chanan as pre-eminently entitled to " the confidence and affections 
of the South." As far North as the city of Washington, the organ 
of the present administration, after presenting a series of reasons 
claiming Southern support for Mr. Buchanan, adds " this rapid retro- 
spect discloses a consistency and an efficiency of service to the South 
which flattery can claim for no other living man." It is not for a 
consistency of service to his country — it is not for " knowing no 
North and no South," but " for service to the South," that in this 
same article Mr. Buchanan is presented " as in advance of any and 
every statesman of the North." 

A letter recently published, written by a most intelligent, frank, 
and honorable gentleman, who was a delegate to the Cincinnati Con- 
vention from the State of Mississippi, and a member of the committee 
to announce his nomination to Mr. Buchanan, says that he (Mr. 
Buchanan) " stood upon the Cincinnati platform, and endorsed 
every part of it. He was explicit in his remarks on the slavery 
features, saying that the slavery issue was the absorbing element in 
the canvass " — " that he spoke in terms of decided commendation 
of the Kanzas bill ; " and that afterwards he said, " If I can be 
instrumental in settling the slavery question upon the terms 1 have 
?iamed, and then add Cuba to the Union, I shall, if President, be 
willing to give up the ghost, and let Breckinridge take the govern- 
ment." 

Slavery extension and filibustering are then the great objects of 
Mr. Buchanan's desire to be elevated to the Presidency — these 
attained, he will be willing to " give up the ghost." Governor 
Brown allows no doubt to rest upon Mr. Buchanan's policy on the 
slavery question, when in this same letter he adds, " In my judgment 
he is as worthy of Southern confidence and Southern vbtes, as Mr, 
Calhoun ever ivas." 



Bat while similar evidences of the purely sectional character of 
the appeal made in his behalf and of the sectional policy of Mr. 
Buchanan and the Democratic party might be almost indefinitely 
multiplied, Mr. Buchanan himself furnishes evidence of the direction 
in which his thoughts, his affections, and his confidence lie. In a 
recent reply to an announcement of the pacification, lately pro- 
claimed, between the two factions of the " Democratic party " in cur 
State, Mr. Buchanan in ecstasy replies, " The whole Southern coun- 
try will hail this reunion as a rainbow in the clouds." Even in this 
moment of rejoicing he could not include the North as a part of the 
country with which he sympathized — he had no national compre- 
hensiveness to embrace, even in such a moment, his entire country — 
but to him the " Southern country^ was his whole country — the 
North had no place in his thoughts. It was a sectional, not a national 
emotion, which broke forth on this occasion. From the fulness of 
the heart the mouth spake. 

The Democratic party of the present day is, in my judgment, 
purely, narrowly sectional in its principles, its objects, and its can- 
didates. It presents no single issue upon which the Whig party 
stood. Its success would invest with power the sectional domestic, 
and the aggressive foreign policy of the Cincinnati platform ; — it 
would endorse the action and perpetuate power in the hands of a 
party which has wantonly sacrificed the internal peace of the coun- 
try ; has involved the nation in the most fearful sectional strife, and 
has jeoparded foreign war in the effort on the part of those in office 
to obtain (in their own persons,) a continuance of the means of evil 
— a party which has brought discredit upon the country by selecting as 
its representatives abroad, many either of known violence and ex- 
travagance, or of unknown mediocrity ; and which, in catering for 
foreign votes, by its selection of exotic agents, has stimulated a 
counter-spirit of proscription and intolerance adverse to the genius 
of our Constitution and the stability of our institutions. 

As a Whig, national and conservative in all my feelings and all 
my tendencies, I can find no resting-place within the embrace of 
this Democratic party. 

The American party presents a most estimable citizen in the per- 
son of its principal candidate. For Mr. Fillmore I personally enter- 
tain a high respect, both as an individual, and as a statesman, and 
the general policy of his administration, particularly in the firm, 



6 

dignified, and pacific management of our foreign relations, may be 
claimed with satisfaction and approval as the result of a Whig tri- 
umph. 

If he were now the representative of the Whig party and of Whig 
principles, we might even under the conviction of impending defeat, 
assert our principles, by casting away votes for the candidate of our 
party. But he repudiates the Whig party, its organization, and its 
principles. While this gallant party, distracted as it was, was 
struggling to regain a position, and to recover its organization, Mr. 
Fillmore, in his letter accepting the nomination of the American 
party, places reliance upon the " patriotic purposes," the " modera- 
tion and forbearance " of that party " alone of all the political agen- 
cies now existing." It alone, in his judgment, is equal to the 
demands of the occasion. It alone has his confidence. 

In a more recent letter he frankly reminds some persons who 
tendered him their support, that he is " the candidate of the Ameri- 
can party," and intimates that it would be " dishonorable " in him 
to receive their votes unless they " know his position." This frank- 
ness is equally commendable and significant — it is a caution that it 
will not be in favor of a Whig, that the votes for Millard Fillmore 
will be cast. 

What concessions of principle have been made to bring Mr. Fillmore 
and Mr. Donelson on the same political platform — or which of these 
former antagonists has gone the farthest from his original position to 
strike hands in this new political brotherhood, it might be difficult to 
determine. The principles and the objects of the American party 
are (to the uninitiated) involved in doubt and uncertainty. Numer- 
ous platforms and creeds have been proclaimed, enunciating much 
that is good, and wise, and true, with much that is narrow, bigoted, 
proscriptive, and intolerant. What is its present precise doctrine or 
creed, I do not understand. I do not understand it to be admitted, 
even at this day, that secresy, oaths, tests, and passwords, have 
been wholly abrogated — nor that the obligation has been removed 
which requires members not only in the exercise of the elective fran- 
chise, but in the distribution of official patronage in discharge of a 
public office, to confine themselves to members of the organization : 
nor that the religious test, which proscribed those of a certain belief, 
has been wholly rescinded. 

We do know, however, that Mr. Fillmore, who is represented to 



have been initiated in all the mysteries of the Order, and to have 
assumed the oaths of the several degrees, regards this new party as 
so distinct from, and at such variance with the Whig party to which 
he, and you, and I belonged, that he has withdrawn from the latter 
his confidence, and proclaimed to the world that he has transferred it 
wholly to the new party which boasts that it arose upon the downfall 
of the Whig party, and proclaims that the corruptions of both the 
Whig and the Democratic parties furnished the necessity for its ex- 
istence. 

On the score of party allegiance, then, or party attachment, Mr. 
Fillmore, in his present position, has no stronger claims upon U3 
Whigs than has Mr. Buchanan, or Mr. Fremont ; perhaps not as 
much claim, for they never abandoned us. 

And we must not forget that the principles and the policy and the 
illustrious men of the party to which Mr. Fillmore formerly belonged 
— a party which claimed Clay and Webster as their leaders and ex- 
ponents — had no more bitter opponent and reviler than Major Donel- 
son, who now stands with Mr. Fillmore on the American ticket, as a 
candidate for the Vice-Presidency. 

Experience sadly teaches us Whigs the necessity of looking to the 
soundness, the fidelity, and the attachment to our principles of the 
candidate for the second office, and if the recollections and the asso- 
ciations of the past furnish any inducements to support Mr. Fill- 
more, they present equally strong reasons for voting against Mr. 
Donelson. The two are inseparably associated, the dead carcass is 
bound to the living man — we cannot enjoy the one without being 
cursed with the other. I have endeavored in vain to see in the com- 
ing contest another possibility than the election of either the Demo- 
cratic or the Republican candidate. 

From the best information at my command, I cannot name a sin- 
gle State, North, South, East or West, which I believe will cast 
its vote for Mr. Fillmore. But supposing that he receive a few 
votes (and his intelligent supporters cannot expect to give him more 
than a few,) and that the election be thus thrown into the House of 
Representatives. This is an event at all times to be deprecated ; at 
present it would especially threaten a rude shock to our system, not 
to be averted or compensated even by the election resulting in Mr. 
Fillmore's favor, if that were possible. But to anticipate that possi- 
bility would be to attribute to the representatives a degree of inde- 



8 

pendence of their constituents, which, I apprehend, will not be seen in 
our day. It would be ascribing to the Democratic party an amount 
of self-sacrifice and of patriotism, exceeding any ever exhibited by 
them, to expect that they would conduce to the election of Mr. Fill- 
more, when, by preventing any election by the House of Represent- 
atives (in case of their own inability to form combinations, which 
will enure to Mr. Buchanan's election,) they hope still to have 
the power and the patronage of the Government in their own hands 
(in the person of Mr. Breckinridge,) who, in the event of a failure 
to make choice in the Electoral College, will be chosen Vice-Presi- 
dent by the present Senate, and may become acting President in 
case the House of Representatives fail to make an election. 

The fierceness and bitterness of the assaults made by the organs 
of the American party, and by the peculiar friends of Mr. Fillmore 
upon Col. Fremont and the Republican party, seem to preclude the 
idea of any expectation of support of Mr. Fillmore from the repre- 
sentatives of that party in case the election be thrown into the 
House. 

But it is to be hoped that there is no probability of its reaching 
there. 

The party which supports Col. Fremont is said to be " sectional ; " 
— if a charge were to be proved by its repetition, this would be fully 
established. 

I find, however, nothing sectional in the call of the Convention by 
which he was nominated. If any portion of the Union was unrepre- 
sented in that Convention, it was from its own free choice, and not 
because it was excluded by the terms in which the Convention was 
called. The South disclaims the responsibility of the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise, and unless that repeal was a sectional meas- 
ure, the invitation to the Convention which nominated Col. Fremont 
was comprehensive and as broad as the Union. The resolutions 
adopted by the Convention are largely in the very language of the 
Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution. They make 
no assault upon the rights of any section, or upon the people of any 
section ; they embody many of the principles for which the Whig 
party ever contended, while they .contain no assertion of gene- 
ral principles for which the Whig party did not contend, or 
against which National Whigs, North or South, would 'object; they 
invade no rights of property of any kind ; they do not assail the 



rights of the States to establish and regulate their domestic institu- 
tions ; they do not propose to interfere with the migration or trans- 
fer of slaves from State to State, or with slavery in the District of 
Columbia ; they contemplate no obstruction to the rendition of the 
fugitive slaves, and no interference with the fugitive slave law ; they 
make no objection to the future admission of Slave States ; they 
raise no question of the permanence of Slavery within the States, 
and do not tend to the agitation of any question affecting the Insti 
tution of Slavery within the States. In all these points they contain 
not a word to which the extremest Southern man would object. 

Wherein, then, are they sectional ? The charge must rest ex- 
clusively upon their resistance to the extension of Slavery into the 
Territories. This is no new doctrine. Some years since it was the 
universally received doctrine ; and only a few years back the whole 
North was unanimous on the question. The language of the resolu- 
tions on this point is not extreme. I do not adopt their whole doc- 
trine, with all their denials and conclusions ; but I am not disposed 
to criticise too severely an honest sentiment in the direction of liber- 
ty, especially when uttered in the ardor of a political strife of unusual 
excitement, because of some extravagance, or of some illogical 
deductions : the general tendency of the resolutions on this point, is 
honest and right, and is consistent with a power which has been 
exercised by Congress, and long acquiesced in, and is in conformity 
with the opinions and the principles of Washington and Franklin, of 
Hamilton and Jefferson, of Henry and Jay — principles which were 
embodied in the ordinance of 1787, and which underlie the whole 
early policy of the Government. If these principles be Sectional, 
what is National ? The right to permit or prohibit Slavery in the 
Territories is a question of Constitutional power, on which different 
opinions may be, and are honestly entertained ; but the assertion of 
the power is no more " sectional" than its denial, and is far less so 
than the doctrine (of recent date) which a few Southern politicians 
have engrafted upon the Democratic creed, and have embodied in 
the Cincinnati platform. 

To abstain from the assertion of what we believe the true doctrine 
on this question, under the fear of being called " sectional," might 
pelieve us from that charge, only, however, to receive the merited 
application of a more ignominious epithet. 

Col. Fremont's name has been before the public now for several 



10 

months, subject to the severe ordeal which our system of conducting 
popular elections brings to bear upon the candidates for high position. 
Much has been said in malice and in the acrimony of unrestrained 
political hostility, but as yet no stain has been fastened upon his 
character or his conduct. 

A Southern man by birth and by education, he is the candidate 
of the party which is said to be Northern ; he is supported by a 
party said to be opposed to the Romish religion, and his opponents 
say that he is a Roman Catholic ; his election is opposed as dangerous 
to the rights of the slaveholders, and the Anti-Slavery Standard (the 
organ of the Abolitionists), deprecates his success, which it says, 
" will, in its benumbing and satisfying influence, retard the move- 
ments of the slave's redemption ;" he is charged at the South with 
opinions and tendencies dangerous to the rights of the South, and 
at the North, his votes in the Senate are quoted as evidence of pro- 
Slavery proclivities. 

I am induced to believe, from all that I can learn, that his opinions 
and his principles are fixed, moderate, and conservative — that while 
respecting, as he must do, the rights of the South, he has not been 
blinded to the great wrong of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
and the effort to extend slavery by the agency of the general Gov- 
ernment into territory which, by a fair, clear, distinct understanding 
between the different parts of the Union, had been dedicated to 
freedom — an understanding in the nature of a compact, and the 
more obligatory because its permanence and its enforcement depended 
upon the honor and the good faith of the parties. The consequences 
and the consummation of this great wrong may yet be arrested only 
by the election of Col. Fremont, and if I correctly appreciate him 
and his position, that being done, the constitutional rights of the 
South will be as safe under his Administration as under that of any 
other Southern man. The guaranties and the compromises of the 
Constitution will be enforced, and its limitations observed — and by 
the removal of the cause of complaint and of apprehension which 
has excited and alarmed the North, — we may reasonably hope for a 
state of peace and quiet, and a restoration of friendly and brotherly 
intercourse between the different parts of the Union. 

If it be said that Col. Fremont may attempt some invasion of the 
rights of the South — some interference with the domestic institutions 
of the States — or some action tending to diminish or destroy the 



11 

value, or the tenure, or the security of their property, or that he 
may disregard some of the obligations of the Constitution, or its 
compromises, its guaranties, or its limitations, to the prejudice of the 
South, I reply in the first place, that I have not the slightest appre- 
hension that sueh an effort will be, or dare be made ; and secondly, 
that if it should ever be made, the North would claim the foremost 
position in administering the merited rebuke, in redressing the 
wrong, and in applying effectual securities against any recurrence of 
the outrage. 

Besides, it is apparent, that the Executive cannot efficiently ad- 
minister the Government without support from the great conservative 
element of the North ; which, though outraged by the abrogation of 
the Missouri Compromise, and the subsequent efforts of the present 
Administration to force slavery into Kanzas, is still earnest in its 
determination to sustain the South in all its just rights under the 
Constitution of our country. 

We are told that in case of the election of Colonel Fremont, the 
South will not, and ought not to submit — that the Union will be 
dissolved. This is an unpatriotic and disloyal suggestion, deserving 
the severest reprobation ; contemptible as a threat, and if uttered 
earnestly, evinces a want of proper appreciation of the priceless 
value, and of the strength of the Union. Doubtless there are men, 
both at the North and at the South, who contemplate, and some 
even who desire a dissolution of the Union. Our Jails and Lunatic 
Asylums are of sufficient capacity to accommodate them. Fortunately 
they are as impotent as the object they contemplate is wicked. 

No, the Union of these States will not be destroyed upon a mere 
suspicion, or by reason of a fair and honest exercise by the People 
of their constitutional right to select their own rulers. If, however, 
the bond which holds together this Confederation of States, be so 
feeble as to be severed for such cause, we who have been accustomed 
to look to the Union as one of the greatest of political blessings, will 
be forced to moderate our regret at its loss by the conviction, that 
while enjoying its protection, we overestimated its strength and its 
efficiency, without which its value is a delusion. 

There are two prominent issues involved in the pending contest : 

I. The Slavery Question — not as an abstract question ; but a 
question of right and of political power, " Shall Slavery be carried 
into Territory formerly covered by the Missouri Compromise ? " and 



12 

II. The Foreign Policy of the Government — " Shall peace and 
justice, or violence and outrage be its policy ? " 

This latter issue must not be forgotten or overlooked. 

As there are practically two great questions involved in the 
contest, so is the issue of the contest practically between two candi- 
dates — Buchanan and Fremont. 

What then is our duty as Whigs ? 

Can we support the Democratic candidate and perpetuate the 
policy which has induced the very state of political sectionalism we 
deplore, and into which we have been plunged by the acts of the 
present Administration ? Can we adopt the Democratic platform, 
and surrender the principles which have commended the Whig party 
to our reason, judgment, and affections ? Can we accept the views 
which are likely to predominate in the management of our foreign 
relations, should the doctrines promulgated at Ostend be clothed 
with Executive power and authority ? 

For myself, I must answer these questions in the negative. 

Let us turn to the other side. 

We find no assault upon a single Whig principle — no danger of 
an unsafe and belligerent foreign policy — no extreme or violent 
proposition in regard to slavery where it now exists, but only that 
resistance to its advance and spread over soil long since made free, 
which we have ever advocated. 

Again I answer for myself. 

In such a crisis, and under such circumstances, my voice must be 
there. I can without difficulty perceive my way clear to that point ; 
and though still a Whig, shall cast my vote for Fremont and Dayton, 
esteeming such course the best and surest remedy for present evils, 
and, trusting that the time is not far distant when political organiza- 
tions will again assume broader and more catholic grounds, 
I am, my dear sir, 

with the highest respect and esteem, 

Your friend and obedient servant, 

HAMILTON FISH. 



MR. HAMILTON'S REPLY. 



To Ron. Hamilton Fish, Senator, £c., New York. 

Greenburg, Westchester Co., Oct. 4. 

My Dear Sir : — Your letter of the 12th was received on the 21st 
ultimo. 

Your remarks upon the course of the Democratic party in relation 
to our foreign and domestic policy, are eminently just, and I am 
gratified to say, they have added strength to my convictions, that the 
success of Mr. Buchanan would be more to be deplored than that of 
either of the other candidates. I cannot express in terms too strong, 
my contempt for the spirit of unmanly compliance, -which has in- 
duced him to lay down his identity, to become the inanimate repre- 
sentative of a party platform. Commencing in such a spirit of sub- 
mission to party dictation, no man can tell where he will end. 

Conservative Whigs, who support Mr. Buchanan, insist that he 
did not, by his letter of acceptance, adopt " the Ostend Manifesto," 
or if he did, he would not be bound by it. Governor Brown, in the 
letter quoted by you, declares that he (Buchanan) said, " If I can 
be instrumental in settling the slavery question upon the terms Ihave 
named, and then add Cuba to the Union, I shall, if President, be 
willing to give up the ghost, and let Breckinridge take the Govern- 
ment." It would have been more satisfactory to the public, if not 
to the party, if the terms of that settlement had been fully stated. 
We can surmise, however, that they were ultra pro-slavery, inas- 
much as they authorize Mr. Brown to say, Mr. Buchanan " is as wor 
thy of Southern confidence and Southern votes as Mr. Calhoun ever 
was." More than this could not be said of any terms he or any 
other man could have named; and as to the " Ostend Manifesto," 
he sanctions all it imports ; he makes the addition of " Cuba to the 
Union," let it cost what it may of blood and treasure and national 
honor, the crowning point of his administration ; that being done, 
he is willing to give up the ghost and the Government to Breckin- 
ridge. 



14 

This determination to take Cuba, — to settle the slavery question 
on terms which put him in Southern confidence, where Mr. Calhoun 
was, — and then to give the Government to Breckinridge, has great, 
very great significance, in view of the disloyal purposes of many very 
influential leaders of the Democratic party of the South, to which I 
beg to call your attention, as I propose to develop them. 

It is threatened by Southern Democrats and their organs, that if 
Fremont is elected the South will and ought to " withdraw from the 
Union ; " which means, if a majority of the American People, in an 
election conducted according to law, shall elect the man of their 
choice, the minority will not submit to the will of the major- 
ity ; but will, like the Red Republicans of France, appeal front the 
ballot-box to the bayonet. I repel, on behalf of the people of the 
South, this slander. It is impossible that the good and true men of 
any section of our country, will permit so base a betrayal of the first 
principles of Republican government — " the will of the majority 
must govern." 

Be assured the mere fact of such a result, or the anticipation of 
danger from it, will not produce such fearful consequences. The 
people of the South will not permit the fanatic seceders to adopt 
such a course ; nor would we of the North, under like circumstances, 
permit the mad Abolitionists to make such an attempt. 

My fears of disunion result from deeper and more dangerous 
designs. Mr. Calhoun, and other very distinguished Southern men, 
have long cherished a plan formed by him, which his talents and 
force of character might have attempted with some probability of 
success ; and which his disciples are striving to accomplish : 

" The establishment of a great Southern Empire " — founded on 
the dissolution of the Union. 

That a conspiracy for such a purpose has long existed ; and that 
it is to be attempted, at its appointed time, after " Cuba is added to 
the Union," I have long believed, and in that belief I have anxiously 
watched the course of events. 

The first intimation of such a purpose I received from a Southern 
statesman, as distinguished for his personal worth as by his talents 
and the elevated positions he has held under successive Presidents 
— who, when I communicated to him the news just received in New 
York, that Texas was to be annexed, said with emphasis : "I am in 
favor of the annexation of Texas, and of the Great Southern Em- 



15 

pire" This will be said to have been a random expression. I did 
not so understand it. I considered it the declaration of a purpose, 
of which the annexation of Texas formed a part, and in which the 
declarant participated, and as such I repeated it to my friends. 

It struck me with amazement ; and, coming from such a source, 
it awakened anticipations which have been strengthened by develop- 
ments, produced, as it seemed, by some unseen power, all tending 
to the same end. 

The annexation of Texas, (by Mr. Calhoun, under the imbecile 
Tyler, at the last hour of his administration, in an unconstitutional 
manner) ; the war with and dismemberment of Mexico — (a war not 
made by Congress, then in session, but by Mr. Polk) ; the Mesilla 
Valley Treaty ; the assaults upon Cuba by armed bands of American 
citizens, recruited in the South and Southwest ; the permitted in- 
vasion of Nicaragua by Walker, and the recognition of the Walker- 
Rivas Government as soon as it was known that Slavery was to be 
established there (by the President, under the direction of Mr. 
Jefferson Davis, an avowed seceder) ; Mr. Sould's mission, and his 
attempt to bully Spain into a sale of Cuba ; or to drive her into a 
war; the Ostend Manifesto — its Adoption by the Platform ; Mr. 
Buchanan's nomination (who is as true to Southern interests as 
u 3Ir. Calhoun ever was"*) and his declaration on accepting, that he 
was willing when he should add Cuba to the Union, to give up the 
ghost and the Government to Breckinridge ; Mr. Soule's existing 
mission to Walker and the States of Central America ; the Repeal 
of the Missouri Compromise, in order, by the agitation of slavery, 
" to weld the whole South into a solid mass," and to form a cordon 
of Slave States from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean ; — these are all 
events which, in their results, are important to a combination under 
one rule of Cuba, Central America, Mexico, and that portion of the 
United States which is south of the north line of Ivanzas. 

To the success of this gigantic project, not revealed in its full 
proportions to all of the most zealou3 seceders, it is necessary that 
the whole power of the United States should be exerted for the pur- 
chase or conquest of Cuba. That being accomplished by the blind 
instrument of the Platform, it will be important that a Southern man 
of talents and courage, as Mr. Breckinridge confessedly is, should 
hold the reins of this Government, in order to make such an arrange- 
ment with the Great Southern Empire as will ensure peaceful and 
satisfactory terms of separation. 



16 

This may be denounced as the vision of an alarmist. I take that 
risk, in avowing as I do my solemn conviction that such a purpose 
is, and has long been entertained by men holding high stations in 
the States South, in the United States, and in the Democratic party. 

Mr. Keitt, a Member of Congress from South Carolina, in a 
speech made recently in Virginia, speaking of the people of the 
South, said : " They love progress, and the first step in that direc- 
tion is the acquisition of Cuba. [Loud and enthusiastic cheers.] 
Standing on your Southern shores, the sentinel on our watch towers, 
it must be ours, or the South is exposed to invasion. Yes, it must 
be ours, and I have no objection to the filibusters taking it. [Loud 
cheers.] Take it, and we will pay for it afterwards. [Tremendous 
cheers.] Take it — I care not in what manner — and then we will 
roll into it a Gulf Stream of Southern population that will make it 
truly the gem of the Antilles. Extensively guarded, by nature 
protected, roll into it your Southern population, and the navies of all 
the earth may thunder around its shores, and they will thunder in 
vain. [Loud cheers.] Yes, controlling the commerce of the West 
for three thousand miles, and controlling also the commerce of the 
East, through the greater enterprise and commercial spirit of our 
population, Cuba would be what Palmyra was in ancient times, if it 
once throws off the despotism of Spanish rule. [Loud cheers.] 
The Democratic party can and will take it. [Cheers.] The des- 
tiny of that party is indeed a noble destiny. [Loud cheers.] 
Convulsed as the world is — shaking off its old domination, breaking 
its old fetters — what a spectacle rises up before us ! Affairs in 
Nicaragua are strongly tending to a favorable issue. [Cheers.] 
Already has it entered upon its career of greatness, and the cer- 
tainty of its progress is no longer a matter of doubt." 

The reference to the power of Cuba from its position, " standing 
on our Southern shores — the sentinel on our watch-towers " — 
" filled with a Southern population "— " controlling the commerce of 
the West for three thousand miles," (that is, the commerce of the 
Western rivers which £ow into the Gulf;) and " controlling also 
the commerce of the East," that is, the commerce of the Atlantic 
parts of the United States of the North, — is most significant and 
perfectly intelligible, when connected with the plan of "The Great 
Southern Empire." » 

To those who believe that nullification and secession were intended 



17 

and attempted by South Carolina, that the Nashville Convention 
disclosed a purpose of dissolution entertained by very many influen- 
tial men, and that there is an opinion at the South that the Union 
cannot and ought not to continue, which is earnestly fostered by a 
large class of Southern politicians, the events which have been and 
which are expected to be brought about by the power of the United 
States, directed and controlled by those men, tending to extend our 
Southern boundary to which I have referred, are not only obviously 
necessary, but must be admitted to be politic, in view of the purpose 
to secede and to form a Southern Empire. To those who so believe, 
these suggestions will not be deemed extraordinary. 

Under such circumstances it is quite certain, that should Mr- 
Buchanan be elected, the whole power of the United States is to 
be exerted to secure Cuba by purchase or conquest ; and that being 
done, that the plan will be sufficiently matured to attempt dismem- 
berment, and the consolidation of the Great Empire. 

The States of Central America (one has already intimated a wish 
to be annexed,) would readily seek repose, and the development of 
their vast material resources, under the iEgis of the Great Empire 
of which they would form integral parts, and for which Mr. 
Sould may now be preparing them. Mexico, torn by internal dis- 
sensions — insolvent — pressed by Great Britain — and by all parts of 
the Great Empire on the North, and by another part — the States of 
Central America on the South, with the watch-tower of the Empire 
on her Gulf border, to avoid submission to the terms of a conqueror, 
would probably seek, with unbecoming haste, the glory of being a 
member of " The Great Southern Empire." 

The Union will not be dissolved, or attempted to be, by the elec- 
tion of Mr. Fremont, or at all, until the range of our Southern 
boundary shall be extended, so as to embrace all the States and 
Territories required to form an imposing confederacy. 

Although the disciples of Mr. Calhoun may have accomplished 
much, and designed to do much more, to establish such a govern- 
ment, there is much yet to be done. The election of Mr. Buchanan, 
the blind but most important instrument of their success, is to be 
achieved, in despite of an immense majority of the people of the 
United States. The leading Whigs of the South and Southwest, 
with vast numbers of the people of both these sections, who remain 

true to the Union, are to be brought into the faith, whenever that 
o 



18 

attempt shall be made, as it surely will be, if Mr. Buchanan is 
elected, and has added Cuba to the Union. The loyalty and patri- 
otism of the people, being animated by the glorious spirit of their 
Republican ancestors, they will strike for the integrity and honor of 
our common country. 

Deeply and painfully impressed with the conviction that the un- 
hallowed purposes to which I have referred, are seriously entertained 
by a large body of influential men, both in and out of the govern- 
ment, who now are, and have long been, adroitly shaping the affairs 
of our country to carry out their treasonable purposes ; and con- 
vinced, as I am, that if Mr. Buchanan is elected we shall be bur- 
thened with an enormous debt, incurred for the purchase or con- 
quest of Cuba — not for the benefit of the whole United States, but 
to prepare for disunion and the Great Southern Empire, I am con- 
vinced it is the duty of all, regardless of all consequences, to defeat 
Mr. Buchanan. I will, therefore, as soon as I am convinced that 
Mr. Fillmore's election is hopeless, knowing my duty, most cheer- 
fully and zealously perform it. 

You believe Mr. Fillmore cannot get an electoral vote, although 
I believe he will get the votes of two Southern States, and, in a cer- 
tain contingency, may get the votes of two Northern States. I am 
convinced he cannot be elected. It is barely possible that the elec- 
tion may go to the House of Representatives — an event deeply to 
be deplored at all times, but particularly when the parties there are 
so deeply excited against each other, as they are too well known to 
be. Should this take place, it is believed that a choice cannot be 
made, unless the partisans of Mr. Fillmore will cast their votes for 
Mr. Buchanan. If that should not be so, the Democrats will hope- 
lessly but perseveringly vote for Mr. Buchanan until the end of the 
session, in order that the Vice President, Mr. Breckinridge, elected 
by the Senate, may be President. The government being in the 
hands of the latter, the same policy to which Mr. Buchanan is 
pledged, will be boldly and unhesitatingly carried out. Under the 
conviction that in no case can Mr. Fillmore be elected, I have de- 
cided, after the most earnest review of my first impressions and the 
whole subject, that it is my imperative duty, regardless of all present 
consequences, to exert whatever influence I may possess to promote 
the election of Mr. Fremont. 

The highest duty of an American citizen is loyalty to the Union 



19 

and devotion to the Constitution. The former was prompted by the 
common interests and common sympathies of the people, long ante- 
rior to the declaration of their independence ; the latter, the result of 
a compromise of feelings, opinions, and interests, to preserve and 
perpetuate the former ; both are of inappreciable value. The im- 
agination of man cannot embrace the evils to all sections of our coun- 
try which would follow disunion. The first step would plunge us 
into civil war ; and every other step would bring along a dark 
and dreary waste of crime and misery. 

The resentments now indulged in> being the bitter fruit of mutual 
crimination and wrong, would, in that event, ripen into the deadliest 
hate. It has been truly said, " of all the evils to public liberty, war 
is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it creates and devel- 
ops the seeds of every other : war is the parent of armies ; from 
these proceed debts and taxes ; and armies, debts, and taxes, are 
the sure means for bringing the many under the dominion of the 
few. No nation has long preserved its freedom in the midst of per- 
petual wars." These are solemn admonitions applicable to both par- 
ties — North and South — in the event of disunion. There is an- 
other from the same source to which the South ought to listen, at 
least with respect. Speaking of collisions between the States, Mr. 
Madison says : — "I take no notice of an unhappy species of popu- 
lation abounding in some of the States, who during the calm of reg- 
ular government, are sunk below the level of men ; but who, in the 
tempestuous scenes of civil violence, may emerge into the human 
character, and give a superiority of strength to any party with which 
they may associate themselves." It is not difficult to decide with 
which party, in a civil war, this class would be associated. 

We turn from this truly painful subject, to that other, which is 
the cause of all our troubles, present and anticipated. 

Leading men, North and South, prompted by ambition and ava- 
rice, wickedly combined to violate a compact which has received the 
sanction of, and been held sacred by, the whole nation for over thirty 
years, in order to extend the area of Slavery. This monstrous 
wrong has wounded the Northern heart, and excited a spirit of re- 
sistance and resentment, which will not be satisfied until that wrong 
is righted. 

However much you and I, with all other men, who love their 
whole country, may regret such a sectional issue, there it is. It is 



20 

upon us by no act of the North, and it must be met and settled, now 
and forever. To regret it, to shut our eyes to this fact, or to en- 
deavor to cover it over by unmeaning generalities, will do no good. 

The restoration of that compromise line would be the shortest and 
the best remedy. This, we are told, cannot be done. If that be so, 
the only other remedy, is to give practical effect to that compact by 
all lawful and constitutional means. 

Having been called to reply to your letter, and to the letters of 
other gentlemen, who have honored me by associating my name with 
their communications to the public, and thus to give a prominence 
to my opinions which I know they do not deserve, I can only ex- 
press my most anxious wish that our countrymen on the one side and 
the other may pause in their mad career, and taking counsel from 
their mutual interests, may, when this contest is ended, whatever 
may be its issue, moved by recollections of the past, their knowledge of 
the present, and their anticipations of the future glory of their coun- 
try under the Union and the Constitution, sacrifice upon the altar 
of patriotism all unhallowed feelings, and honestly endeavor, in a 
spirit of justice and magnanimity, to restore that harmony, mutual 
good-will and confidence which inspired our fathers, and which car- 
ried them safely through all their difficulties in war and in peace. 

I remain, my dear sir, with respect and regard, your friend and 
obedient servant. JAMES A. HAMILTON. 






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